She Remembers
by Katie 452
Summary: Abby can remember when things were different, and she’s not so sure that’ll she ever be able to reconcile her past with her present. Post-finale fic with pre-series flashbacks. Please R/R.
1. A New Normal

**Title:** She Remembers

**Author:** Katie

**Story Summary**: Abby can remember when things were different, and she's not sure that'll she ever be able to reconcile her past with her present. Post-finale fic with pre-series flashbacks. Please R/R.

**Spoilers:** Sigh

**Ratings:** PG (if you're old enough to watch Harper's Island, you're old enough to read this)

**Pairing:** All chapters include Abby/Jimmy romance.

**Authors Note:** Could probably be read as a series of one-shots as much as a continuous story. I don't know how much older Henry is than Abby, or how much older Abby is than JD, so I took artistic license. From the episode where JD goes to Abby I think that they had a good relationship – took artistic license with their past as well.

**Authors Note 2:** This is my very first Harper's Island fiction, so please be kind. This did not turn out anything like I though it would, hope you like it anyway – I had fun writing it.

**Distribution:** Please! Just let me know.

**Feedback:** Please!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything…at all…

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**Chapter One: A New Normal**

Abby stepped out of the shower in the third floor room of the small hotel, about four blocks from the police station in Seattle where she was staying until the police and FBI and Coast Guard and who ever decided they had heard the story enough and her statement was complete and she could finally just go home. She dried off and dressed in a tank top and yoga pants from the small store across the street. She pulled a hairbrush through her hair while watching her reflection in the mirror. She sighed at little and put the brush back down when the noise outside her window started to overpower the waves crashing against the coast line and her trance was broken.

She walked into the bed room and smiled a little when she saw Jimmy. He was lying on his back in the center of the bed, which occupied the center of the small room. A nightstand on either side held the random things that they had accumulated since they were brought back to Seattle by the Coast Guard, papers from the police mostly. And Abby's suite case, retrieved by the FBI and cleared from evidence just the day before sat, unopened, by the window.

His eyes were closed, but she knew he wasn't sleeping. She walked over to the bed and paused a moment before sitting down. She moved closer to Jimmy, tucking her legs under herself when she was right next to him. Her knees brushed his hip and without opening his eyes he found her hand and pulled it to his chest where his fingers could play over hers idly.

She leaned down to kiss him and smiled into it when she felt one of his hands slide easily into her still-damp hair, his other hand still holding hers on his chest. He pulled back a little, pulling her forehead to his and opening his eyes to find hers, "I love you" he told her quietly and she smiled a little before sitting up and squeezing her eyes tightly shut.

They hadn't spoken much about what happened yet. A kind of silent agreement had been made when they stepped off the Coast Guard boat and into the hospital where they were looked at by doctors and questioned by agents. It was all a little too much, a little too soon and they hadn't talked about much of anything real yet, not what happened on the island seven days ago or seven years ago.

She opens here eyes again when she feels his heart rate start to increase under her hand on his chest. She looks out the small window for a moment before looking back at Jimmy, "You're not just trying to break my heart…are you?" She asked her voice hitching a little.

Jimmy's eye brows furrow together for a moment before he props himself up on his elbows and uses one hand to tuck a lock of her hair behind her ear. He sighs softly and pulls her down to kiss her forehead, "Never." he whispers as she sits back up.

Abby sighs as she smiles and looks slightly to the left of Jimmy, like she's preparing for something. Jimmy stays propped up on his elbows, and takes one of her hands, his thumb running back and forth over her knuckles while he waits for her to collect her thoughts.

She takes a deep breath and, "I meant what I said, you know, in that boat house. I mean, I though that Henry might kill us, but that's not why I said it. I really am sorry I left, and especially that I did it without even telling you. And I really did think about calling you all the time. At first I didn't because I thought you'd hate me, and I didn't know what to say, and then I thought I'd waited too long, or that you would have all ready moved on anyway…"

She trails off when Jimmy squeezes her hand lightly, "You don't have to -" he starts but she cuts him off.

"I have this box in the bottom of my closet, of half written letters to you. The first one is from a few days after I left, and they most recent is from a few months ago when Henry told me he was getting married on the island. Some of them are less than a sentence and some are finished and in addressed envelopes, but I never…" she shakes her head, hard, like she trying to physically force herself back on track to the point she was trying to make, "I know that it's lame and kind of cliché to have a box of half written letters, but I do." She stops and shakes her head again, "The point, I guess, is that I said what I said because I meant it, not 'cause I thought we might die," she sighs, "I love you, Jimmy" she finishes in a whisper.

Jimmy pulls on her hand softly until she's close enough for him to kiss her. She lies down on her back and he's on his side, leaning over her and in some ways, she feels like she's 17 again…making out with Jimmy Mance, and she feels, for the first time since leaving Harper's Island that maybe her life could be, if not normal, okay…good even. Like maybe she and Jimmy could make some new kind of normal and she knows…just knows…that they could be happy together.

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**Author's Note 3: **I have the first couple of chapters mostly written, I just wanted to put this out there and get a feel for what people think/where people thought it should go. The next chapter will be the first to include a flashback. _Please _review!!!


	2. Constellations

**Title:** She Remembers

**Author:** Katie

**Story Summary**: Abby can remember when things were different, and she's not sure that'll she ever be able to reconcile her past with her present. Post-finale fic with pre-series flashbacks. Please R/R.

**Spoilers:** Sigh

**Ratings:** PG (if you're old enough to watch Harper's Island, you're old enough to read this)

**Pairing:** All chapters include Abby/Jimmy romance. This chapter also includes Abby/Henry friendship.

**Authors Note:** Could probably be read as a series of one-shots as much as a continuous story. I don't know how much older Henry is than Abby, or how much older Abby is than JD, so I took artistic license. From the episode where JD goes to Abby I think that they had a good relationship – took artistic license with their past as well.

**Authors Note 2:** This is my very first Harper's Island fiction, so please be kind. This did not turn out anything like I though it would, hope you like it anyway – I had fun writing it.

**Distribution:** Please! Just let me know.

**Feedback:** Please!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything…at all…

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**Chapter Two: Constellations**

Abby's head was resting on Jimmy's chest, one hand tracing circles on his skin just under her chin, the other bent and under his arm. Jimmy's arms were protectively around her; one had resting lightly on her hip, the other pulling gently through her hair in a nice repetitive motion.

Abby closes her eyes and she remembers…

_She's 22 years old; she's in LA, on her own, for real (she'd moved into her grandmother's when she was 18 and stayed there until school started in the fall and she could move into the dorms. She'd never lived alone before now but her grandmother didn't keep up with what she did and she wasn't really that close with her dorm mates so while she's living alone for the first time now, it doesn't always feel like it), and she's just signed a one year lease on a small one bed room apartment. She's got a job, it's not perfect but she's right out of school and it's her first job; there's a lot of room for her to segue into something real there, she thinks she might like it. _

_She's excited but she's nervous. That's what she tells Henry on the phone that night, sitting on the floor of the empty apartment. She has some thing in the basement of her grandmother's house about a half an hour away, not a lot, but a bed and a couch and a small black-and-white television and some other odds and ends, she just has no idea where to start, and "if I'm being honest, Henry, I'm a little freaked out" _

_She sleeps on a sleeping bag on the floor of her apartment that night and when she hears knocking on the door she thinks maybe she should be worried because no one has this address yet, except a few friends, from school mostly, and her father ( who for the record, she did not send it to, her grandmother who she'd had to ask to co-sign the lease did) …no one who would be knocking at 6:30 in the morning. _

_She stands anyway, pulls her hair into a ponytail, and walks to the door. She almost screams when she sees Henry standing there, a duffle bag on the floor next to him, a shopping bag in one hand and a cardboard cup holder with two cups of coffee in the other. She hasn't seen him in all most six months, an incredibly long time for them, and she wraps her arms around him tightly before speaking. "What are you doing here?" She gasps out still excited. _

_Henry smiles before he speaks, "well…" he starts walking into her apartment and closing the door behind himself, "I had some vacation time coming and thought since you came up and helped when I got my apartment, I should return the favor." His smile gets a little wider when she takes one of the coffees from the carrier and wraps her free arm around him again. _

_They spend the entire day setting up her place. Her bed frame won't fit in her door way and they spend a hour on the sidewalk in front of her building taking it apart and then a hour-and-a-half inside the bedroom of the apartment putting it back together. _

_Two days later, the apartment looks really good, 'highly liveable' Henry had joked. She sighs when she sits down on the floor in her bedroom, her back against the bed and she presses the power button the television (the stand – ordered from a catalog they'd found in her grandmother's basement- should come in the next day). Henry came in from the kitchen, two beers in one hand and the shopping bag he'd brought with him on the first day in the other. _

_He sits down next to her and hands her a beer, she thanks him and gestures questioningly at the bag. "Do you remember when we were kids," he starts, and turns to face her "when we would sit on the porch of your house and try to find the constellations?" He asks and she laughs lightly. _

_Harper's Island was so far out from shore and the city that you could see all most all the stars. When ever one of them was nervous or upset or…whatever, they'd sit on her family's porch and try to find the constellations. She couldn't remember how or when or even really why the tradition had started, but it had…and it never failed to cheer her up. "We never could find any of them though," she remembers, "we always just ended up making our own." She remembers. _

_Henry smiles and pulls the shopping bag in front of him sets it in between them and dumps its contents to the floor. A pack of glow-in-the-dark stars and a roll of adhesive fall to the floor and Abby's face lights up. _

_They spend hours sticking glow-in-the-dark stars to her ceiling in random formations and naming them. When she drives Henry to the airport the next day, she waves at his plane as it taxis as if he could see her, and dries her eyes in the air port bathroom before driving back to her new home. _

_From then on, when she was sad or upset or whatever, she'd lie on her bed and look up at the fake constellations. If she could get a hold of him, she'd talk to Henry on the phone and they'd make up new names for the random collection of stars on her ceiling. _

She feels Jimmy tilt his head to kiss the top of hers and smiles a little. "You okay?" he asks and she nods very slightly, knowing he can feel it against his chest. It's dark outside but when she looks out side of the window she can't see any stars, and she can't see the ceiling but she knows there aren't any there either.

She pulls back from Jimmy a little and looks at him for a long moment before speaking, "Maybe I'm not." She says and they both know there's not a lot he can do for her. He places his hand on her cheek and when she finally breaks down and starts crying for the first time since this all started Jimmy's holds her tightly to him and wishes he could do more…knows he would do anything, give anything, to make this easier for her.

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Please review!


	3. Surprise Effect

**Title:** She Remembers

**Author:** Katie

**Story Summary**: Abby can remember when things were different, and she's not sure that'll she ever be able to reconcile her past with her present. Post-finale fic with pre-series flashbacks. Please R/R.

**Spoilers:** Sigh

**Ratings:** PG (if you're old enough to watch Harper's Island, you're old enough to read this)

**Pairing:** All chapters include Abby/Jimmy romance. This chapter also includes Abby/Henry/Trish/Malcolm/Sully/Booth/Danny friendship, Henry/Trish romance, and Abby/J.D. friendship.

**Authors Note:** Could probably be read as a series of one-shots as much as a continuous story. I don't know how much older Henry is than Abby, or how much older Abby is than JD, so I took artistic license. From the episode where JD goes to Abby I think that they had a good relationship – took artistic license with their past as well.

**Authors Note 2:** This is my very first Harper's Island fiction, so please be kind. This did not turn out anything like I though it would, hope you like it anyway – I had fun writing it.

**Distribution:** Please! Just let me know.

**Feedback:** Please!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything…at all…

**---------------------------------------------------**

**Chapter Three: Surprise Effect**

Abby wakes up suddenly, with a small jolt, then, realizing where she is, holds perfectly still for a moment trying not to wake Jimmy. He's lying on his side, facing her, holding her to him with one arm under her head and one arm around her waist. She's facing him as well, one hand resting lightly on his chest, the other on his shoulder. It's the longest consecutive amount of time she's slept since leaving the island – about six hours – and she's grateful. She kisses Jimmy's chest lightly, not wanting to wake him, she knows he's slept far less than her.

She knows that he stayed awake long after she fell asleep. She'd been crying and the whole time he ran his hand through her hair and traced circles on her back and mumbled soothing nonsensical things in her ear. She hope that when he wakes up, she'll be able to tell him how much that meant to her…how much it honestly did help. She knows that he stayed awake for quite awhile after she drifted off, too exhausted from crying and the recent events of her life to stay awake, because for hours every time a nightmare woke her up, he'd kiss the top of her head softly and run his hand up and down her back until she was lulled back to sleep.

She tries not to be consumed by thoughts of her loss but when she presses her forehead to Jimmy's chest and squeezes her eyes shut she remembers…

_Abby's 20 years old and she thinks, for the first time, that having a best friend that's two years older than you is wildly unfair. Her last final of the year was a few days ago but it was only the last final of her sophomore year and she's on a plane in it's final descent because her best friend will be a college graduate in four days. _

_Her flight lands at 8:57pm on Friday night. Everyone knows she's coming but they think she's getting in tomorrow. Henry's going to graduate in a few days and she doesn't want to pull him away from the parties and festivities to pick her up from the airport, so she hails a cab and gives the address of the University Inn. _

_She's glad she made reservation a while ago because she has to fight through a crowd of parents who didn't think the Inn would be crowded just to get her room key. She drops her things off in her room before walking to Henry's fraternity house. She'd been there a few times before, she'd come to visit for a few of his birthdays and when Henry found J.D. in a bathroom all most dead a few months ago she'd come to see him in the hospital before he was taken to the psych ward because, shit, she'd literally known JD his whole life (the day that his mom had gone into labor Abby was playing with Henry on the living room floor so she rode in the backseat of the Dunn family car with Henry and seven hours later she was among the first people to see little J.D. Dunn) and she'd always kind of considered him a little brother. _

_When she turns the corner on to Greek Row the noise is all most like a physical force. There is music coming from each house, and people on every lawn. She smiles when Henry's house comes in to view. She's on the front porch about to open the door when some one picks her up from behind and twirls her in a circle before placing her feet back on the ground. She spins, fast, on her heels to see who it was. When she sees that it's Sully smiling at her, holding back a laugh, she smiles huge and wraps her arms around his neck. _

_The summer after her junior year of high school, Henry's freshman year of college, she finally met some of the people that she'd been hearing about on the phone all year. In the last two weeks of the summer, some of his friends came out to the island. "They're some of my pledge brothers, Abby" he'd told her, "you'll love them". _

_So she stood on the dock with Henry, waiting for the water taxi to come in. It wasn't a big deal anyway, by then she was all ready spending a lot of her time at the dock with Jimmy who she'd started dating a few weeks before the school year ended and after they'd danced around each other for the better part of high school. _

_When the water taxi pulled up a few locals returning from trips to Seattle funneled out before four boys carrying back packs came out and jumped from the boat to the dock one by one and ran over to Henry. Three of them quickly started conversations with Henry, "…you weren't kidding…" and "…I'm not great with boats, man…" and other snip-its of conversation could be heard. _

_One of the boys, however, gave an easy wave to Henry and walked over to Abby. He'd talked to her and let his eyes roam her body while she tried not to laugh "Don't be an ass, Sully" Henry said smacking the back of his head. "So," he started and pointed at Abby dramatically, "this is Abby Mills, and Abby, this is Danny, Malcolm, Booth, and you know Sully." Sully had spent part of a summer on the island back in Jr. High when he'd met Henry and he'd been trying to sleep with Abby since, though neither took it too seriously. She saw what made Sully and Henry friends, and she'd fallen into an easy friendship with him as well. _

_She'd spent part of the week they were there with them, getting in to general mischief, and she'd had fun. She'd even stayed in pretty good contact with all of them, and when she flew in for Henry's surprise 21__st__ birthday party it was Sully who helped her get into the bar without being carded. _

_Sully didn't look much different than the last time she'd seen him, his hair was spiky now and she placed her hand on his head and laughed before he looped a casual arm around her shoulders and pulled her inside. "Thought you weren't getting in 'til tomorrow"_

"_That was all part of my evil plan." She smiles and he laughs. She looks around and catches a glimpse of Henry walking with his arm around Trish (Trish graduates in a week so after this her and Henry are driving to Seattle, she wishes she could go watch Trish graduate as well but her summer internship starts in a week so she won't be able to), she tries to flag him down but there's a ton on people here and he doesn't see her. _

_Sully most have noticed because all the sudden his voice is loud and just above her ear, "Henry!" he screams and she punches him lightly in his stomach, "sorry" he laughs, but it worked 'cause now Henry's walking this direction. _

_His reaction to seeing her is all most comical, his eyes go big and his grin is huge, and she's laughing when she wraps her arms around his neck. "What are you doing here?" he asks wrapping his arms around her wait tightly. _

"_Oh, am I not wanted, cause I can…" she points absently towards the door as she moves back to look at him. She smiles teasingly when he rolls his eyes. Trish comes up next to him and she hugs her, "Just got in a couple hours ago…going for the surprise effect. How'd I do?"_

"_Pretty great" he answers. "So -" he starts but is cut off when Sully lowers three beers in front of them. _

_They each take one and Abby takes a drink before she turns to Sully, "You know, no matter how many of these you bring me, I am not going to sleep with you tonight"._

"_Now that's what I like to hear." Malcolm says cutting in between Henry and Abby. He wraps his arms around her and pulls her off the ground when he hugs her. Booth isn't far behind him and he hugs her timidly. _

_Malcolm catches sight of Danny across the room and Abby stands up on her tip toes and can still only see the top of his head. Malcolm must have better luck though 'cause Danny is hugging her warmly not too long after, "It's good to see you Abbner" he says in to her ear. _

_She smiles and when she gets a good look at him she pulls lightly on a lock of his hair, "why is your hair longer than mine, it's so unfair." She jokes. It's a party and it's fantastic to see everyone. She dances with everyone and when she watches Henry and Trish together she's so happy for them – they've been together forever and she's only a little jealous, she think that she could have had that with Jimmy, but the thought is pushed form her head when Sully twirls her back onto the dance floor. _

_A few days later she's at Henry's graduation, sitting next to Trish and Uncle Marty (J.D. was still in the psych ward, but she doubts he'd have come either way). When they call Henry's name all three of them shoot out of their seats and scream like crazy people, she hopes that Henry's not walking across the stage wishing that his parents were there – she knows she'll be thinking about her mother during her graduation and just that thought makes her scream louder for her best friend. _

_They all cheer for Sully, Malcolm, Danny, and Booth too – not quite as enthusiastically, but she is excited for all of them, and she knows she's lucky to have this many people to care about. _

_On her last day, she goes to the psych ward and half expects J.D. to refuse to see her, but he walks out into the yard of the hospital and when she stands from the bench he wraps his arms around her, and she smiles. _

_She knows that J.D. must know that when Henry decided to put him in the psych ward, Abby had argued against it. But when Henry shrugged and yelled in the hall way outside of J.D.'s hospital room, "what the hell am I supposed to do?" and she hadn't been able to come up with an answer she nodded, all most absently, and the next day J.D. was transferred to the psych ward. She doubts that J.D. will ever be able to forgive Henry or Uncle Marty or even her, for that and when they sit down on the bench and start talking she knows that he messed up, but she can't help but pray that he won't hate them for the rest of their lives._

She can't believe that J.D. is dead…that all most everyone she cares about is dead. She glances up at Jimmy's face, he's still asleep and she just so thankful that he's alive. Her hand on his shoulder tightens fractionally and she honestly has no idea what she'd do if he hadn't survived. She doubts that she could handle it if she were lying here alone.

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**Authors Note 3:** This marks the last of the chapters I have written all ready, the next one is partially written and then it's pretty open. Updates might not be as frequent, and I am open to suggestions.

**Authors Note 4:** So I only two reviews on my last chapter, it's very disheartening to work very hard on something and put it out there and get no response. Please review!


	4. Loyalty

**Title:** She Remembers

**Author:** Katie

**Story Summary**: Abby can remember when things were different, and she's not sure that'll she ever be able to reconcile her past with her present. Post-finale fic with pre-series flashbacks. Please R/R.

**Spoilers:** Sigh

**Ratings:** PG (if you're old enough to watch Harper's Island, you're old enough to read this)

**Pairing:** All chapters include Abby/Jimmy romance.

**Authors Note:** Could probably be read as a series of one-shots as much as a continuous story. I don't know how much older Henry is than Abby, or how much older Abby is than JD, so I took artistic license.

**Authors Note 2:** This is my very first Harper's Island fiction, so please be kind. This did not turn out anything like I though it would, hope you like it anyway – I had fun writing it.

**Distribution:** Please! Just let me know.

**Feedback:** Please!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything…at all…

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**Chapter four: Loyalty**

Abby is in the small bathroom again, getting dressed. Jimmy had woken up a couple hours ago and they decided to go the diner across the street for breakfast. When she walks out if the bathroom, Jimmy's dressed and standing by the window. He's looking outside but she knows he's not seeing anything. His head is leaning against the wall and she's not sure what to do.

Abby wonders how Jimmy's handling all this, and realizes that they might have to talk about it soon. They'd avoided it thus far, a silent favor to each other, not forcing one another to relive the horrors of the event. Especially since the FBI and state police had granted no such favor. Some times she feels like she's drowning in it, and wonders if he does too.

He'd been taking care of her since before they left the island. Really since Thomas died and she didn't make the ferry, she wasn't there and he came looking for her…making sure she was okay. And when they finally left Harper's Island and she couldn't help but look back at the place where everything had taken place, he was there, pulling her eyes from the island and making sure she was okay.

She realizes, as she walks over to him, that she hasn't done a very good job of taking care of him. He doesn't realize she's out of the bathroom until her hand lands on his shoulder. He jumps a little; it would have been unnoticeable if she hadn't been touching him, before turning and placing a hand on her hip. He lost as much as she did and as his lips press against her forehead she remembers…

_Abby's 18 years old, she graduated high school last week and she was so excited to start college in the fall. It was about 6:00 in the evening and she was just leaving the Candlewick Inn and heading to the harbor. Sometimes when an event was coming up, or she needed a little extra cash, Abby would help Maggie out at the Candlewick. She knew that Maggie liked having the extra help, and someone to gossip with, and she knew that with starting school in California in a few months she'd need the money. _

"_Hey Shane" She said as she readjusted her messenger bag on her shoulder and looked around the boat shed for Jimmy. _

"_The boat's not back yet, should only be another half hour at the most" he told her and she sighed a little before sitting down on the torn up couch in the corner. The people who worked on the dock used this as sort of a break room and she turned on the old television in the corner, it only even picked up like two channels but she turned it to the news and leaned back on the couch._

"_What are you still doing here?" she asked, looking around and seeing no one but Shane. She wasn't Shane's favorite person, she knew that, and that was okay, he wasn't hers either. But he was fiercely loyal to Jimmy which could make up for a lot in her book. _

"_Jimmy's out with the big-bad-boss fishing, when the boat gets back he's done for the day and I clean the fish." Shane said like she was a little kid asking dumb questions about thing that they should all ready know, which maybe was a little fair because she knew Jimmy had explained the trade off system their boss implemented to her before. _

_She makes a face at him anyway and glances out of the window for a sign of the boat before turning back to the television. _

_About fifteen minutes later a call comes in on the radio and its Jimmy saying that there's some weather between where the boat is and port so they have to wait it out a little. They're not sure how long it'll be. She shakes her head at Shane and he doesn't tell Jimmy that she's waiting. She doesn't want to make him feel bad…make him feel like he's standing her up because that's not what's happening, but she knows he'd feel guilty anyway. She didn't even tell him she was going to drop by, but they've been dating for over a year and they've know each other since grade school – they are way past needing an invitation to drop by, and she is – she hopes - a nice surprise when she does._

_She watches the news for a while; Shane sits in the chair to the side of the couch and makes comments on _every_ story. The news ends and she pulls out a book that's on the 'recommended reading list' the school sent her in her orientation packet. An hour or so passes and she's tired, all the words start to bleed together so she closes the book and shoves in back in her messenger bag._

_She looks up and Shane is standing in font of her holding out a bottle of water and a bag of chips, she takes them and smiles, "Thanks, Shane"_

"_Got another call, they think they don't think they'll be in for another hour or so" he tells her, but by then the storm that was just off the coast is now right outside and she loves they way heavy rain sounds when it falls into the ocean but she doesn't want to go out in it. She would have stayed and waited either way, but now it's unnecessary to tell Shane that, the weather is bad enough that she'd be crazy not to wait it out. _

_Shane sits back down in the chair and she's so tired that she turns the news back on and lays down on the couch, the last real thing she remembers is Shane throwing a pillow at her head. _

_She wakes up about an hour later with Jimmy's hand on her shoulder and his lips so close to her ear that she shivers. He's whispering her name, doing well at finding that balance between loud enough to wake her up and quiet enough not to jolt her from her dream land. Instead of telling him that she's awake she darts out and catches his lips with hers. She vaguely hears Shane say something about how fish guts are less disgusting and she laughs a little into Jimmy's mouth. _

_It's late, and the storm has passed, so they walk the short distance to The Cannery for dinner. It's nice and when Jimmy walks her home she leans sleepily against him. "I'm off this weekend" he tells her and she's excited, "I was thinking…" he trails off raising his hand to scratch at the back of his neck nervously and she think it's cute, "Do you maybe want to go camping or something?"_

They have a quick breakfast at the diner before heading back to the hotel room. 'Baby steps' Abby thinks to herself as she sits down on the bed, she's all most disgusted at how proud she is of herself for not having a nervous breakdown at the diner, for not running every time some one slammed a car door.

She wonders if Jimmy notices that he's taking care of her, but that she's failed to do that for him. He brings her a glass of water and she sort of doubts it. That's how Jimmy is, so sweet, and she feels horrible and stupid all over again for leaving him seven years ago without so much as a good bye.

He sits down next to her and without looking up she whispers, "I'm sorry that Shane is dead" he takes the glass of water from her and sets it on the floor before placing his hand on her cheek and forcing her to look at him, he tells her – voice firm but still soft – that it is _not_ her fault. She still feels bad, Shane was his best friend. It was okay that he hated her after she left…his loyalty to Jimmy could make up for all most anything, and someone had to hate her for breaking Jimmy's heart, she's all most glad it was Shane.

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**Authors Note 3:** Okay, so I'm all most done with the next chapter. I hope you enjoyed this one. If you have anything you'd like to see either in flashbacks or present day, let me know, and as always…**please** review!!!!!


	5. Knowing

**Title:** She Remembers

**Author:** Katie

**Story Summary**: Abby can remember when things were different, and she's not sure that'll she ever be able to reconcile her past with her present. Post-finale fic with pre-series flashbacks. Please R/R.

**Spoilers:** Sigh

**Ratings:** PG (if you're old enough to watch Harper's Island, you're old enough to read this)

**Pairing:** All chapters include Abby/Jimmy romance. This chapter also includes Abby/J.D. friendship.

**Authors Note:** Could probably be read as a series of one-shots as much as a continuous story. I don't know how much older Henry is than Abby, or how much older Abby is than JD, so I took artistic license.

**Authors Note 2:** This is my very first Harper's Island fiction, so please be kind. This did not turn out anything like I though it would, hope you like it anyway – I had fun writing it.

**Distribution:** Please! Just let me know.

**Feedback:** Please!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything…at all… (in this chapter I borrow a line from the movie 'Serenity' and modify it)

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**Chapter Five: Knowing**

Jimmy had just gotten off the telephone with the case manger for the 'Harper's Island Massacre' who told him that they were free to leave Seattle. Their statements had been taken and since everything checked out they were free to leave. They were, they decided, going to stay a few more days though. It had been Abby's idea, "we all ready paid the hotel room through the end of the week" she had rationalized and since Jimmy knew it had more to do with her being scared to go home and face her 'new normal' as she had put it than money, he didn't mention that the state police had paid through the end of the week…not them.

The case manager also told him that they were now free to contact Shea and Madison Allen. They had been asked to please, "Refrain from contacting the Allen family, as the only other survivors of the massacre you're stories will need to match as to avoid suspicions". They'd been off the coast guard boat for less than three hours when a FBI agent said that to Abby. She'd been so angry Jimmy probably would have called it progress were he not in a hospital room receiving fluids through an IV.

She's sitting on the couch in the living room area of the hotel room; she glances over at Jimmy and smiles a little. He's sitting at the small table in the corner of the room, you can see the ocean in the window behind him, and if you don't look too closely you all most can't see the bruises on his face, but Abby can't seem to unfocus her eyes that much. He's going through the case file papers that the FBI had sent over to them, there are some things that they have to read over and sign, Abby hadn't wanted to read about what happened to them, and he'd picked up on that without her having to say.

She grabs the remote of the top of the television and sits back down on the couch. She turns it on and when she sees a photograph of Henry and Trish wrapped around each other she all most drops the remote. There's a mans voice behind the photo, talking about Harper's Island and how "In the next two hours we'll be taking a look at how this young love could have ended so tragically" She knows, intellectually, that what happened is a huge deal, and logically she's aware that the death of two dozen people is international news, especially when you factor in the island's past, but for some reason it never even occurred to her that she'd have to see her story on television.

She sets the remote down next to her and when a photo of J.D. pops up on the screen she thinks she might start crying all over again, but Jimmy's been by her side since Henry and Trish's photo filled her television screen so she leans heavily on him instead (as she has been both literally and figuratively since this whole thing started) and she remembers…

_Abby's 25-years-old and she is exhausted, it's pretty late (around 1:30 in the morning) and normally she would be asleep right now. But she's got an article due the next day and she's really hoping to get it turned in within the next couple of hours so she'll be free tomorrow. So instead of sleeping in her bed right now, she's sitting on it surrounded by small piles of research and rough drafts of her article while she types on her lap top. _

_She hears a key in the lock of her apartment's front door and glances in that direction. She doesn't want to move and ruin the organized chaos system around her so she yells "Who is it?" instead. The list of people who have a key to her apartment is pretty short –about two people and list of people that would be there at 1:30 in the morning is even shorter. _

_The door finally pops open and she hears heavy footsteps coming towards her, she's just about to repeat her question when he leans into her doorway and smiles. She ruins all her carefully made piles when she stands up to hug him, "It's J.D." he says needlessly when she stands back from him. "I didn't think you'd be awake, I was trying to stealth mode my way in here" J.D. says and laughs a little as he picks Abby's cat up from the chair across from her bed and places him on the floor before sitting down where the cat had been._

"_I didn't think you were getting in for like 4 or 5 hours, I was trying to get this done before you got here." She answers maneuvering back to the center of her bed, sitting cross legged in between all her papers. J.D. always took the Amtrak train from Tacoma to Los Angeles when he came to see her. The train trip was almost a full 24 hours, but J.D. could sleep through anything so he said it wasn't too bad. Besides, the train always cost less than 100 dollars round trip, usually even under 50, and a plane ride was easily over 300 dollars round trip. And ever since J.D. was released from the hospital a few years back, his visits were fairly frequent. _

_Abby was all most 22-years-old when J.D. was released from the psych ward at age 17. She had just started a new job, and was just about to graduate college, and couldn't take enough time off to go spend any real time with him – and she knew better than to ask him to her graduation, Henry would be there and while they were on speaking terms again they were not yet friendly. She did, however, fly to Tacoma to spend a four day weekend with him, she'd stayed in Henry's old room and the music from Uncle Marty's room was so loud she didn't sleep at all. _

_All most six months later, J.D. had shown up out side of her apartment holding a military style duffle bag and asking if he could crash for a few days. She'd set him up on her couch and he'd stayed a week before having to back to Tacoma for his GED test. He'd missed too much high school while in the hospital and he wasn't willing to re-take a bunch of classes. _

_The day before he'd left, she finally just asked him what she'd been wondering for over a year, "Why did you try to kill yourself, J.D.?" she'd asked quietly. _

_He shrugged, turned off the television, and turned towards her. "Honestly?" he'd asked and when she nodded he sighed before he spoke, "I don't know, Abb, I didn't think anyone would care."_

"_Can I say something honest?" she'd asked and it was his turn to nod. "That really hurts my feelings." They'd talked about it for hours that night, and she wondered if he'd had this conversation with Henry or Uncle Marty, it kind of made her sad to know that he hadn't._

_The third time he'd just shown up at her place, she'd given him a key. _

"_So, how was the train ride?" she asks, pulling herself into the present. _

"_Wasn't bad – train made good time, obviously." That was one thing about Amtrak, Los Angeles being the last stop, it could be hard to pin point exactly when they'd get in. She'd all but given up, and it was good that Los Angeles was a big enough city for taxis to be everywhere at all times. _

_They talked for a while before J.D. went into the living room so Abby could finish her article. She stayed up for a while longer before finishing her article. She read it over several times before emailing it in. _

_When Abby wakes up the next morning and walks into her small kitchen she's surprised to see J.D. all ready there, eating a bowl of the Fruit Loops she'd bought a few days ago in anticipation of his arrival. She tried to explain to Henry that J.D. was still the same kid that loved Fruit Loops and beat the crap out of Shane Pierce for calling Abby a slut when J.D. was barley 10 and Shane was 15 (Abby and Jimmy weren't dating yet, but they were dancing around it, and Shane saw Bobby Connolly try to kiss Abby behind a swing set at the school and didn't see her push him away and leave to go hang out with Jimmy). Henry always did have problems letting go of the past though, and since his relationship with J.D. was progressing, if slowly, she let it go. _

_She pours a glass of orange juice from the fridge and picks up a manila folder from the counter top before sitting across from him. She puts the folder on the table and slides it over to him. He rolls his eyes before he even opens it; they've had this conversation before, all most every time they speak, and he knows what it is before he flips it open. _

"_Abb-" he starts, elongating the nickname, but she cuts him off._

"_Look, I know you don't like the idea of going back to school, but what else are you going to do?" she asks. He's had his GED a couple years now and he's had a few jobs, taking work when he needed it and that kind of thing, but nothing real; nothing too far above minimum wage. "This one," she starts pulling out the packet on the top, "is for that community college in Tacoma, right near Uncle Marty's place, and this one," she pulls out the one under it "is for the one a couple blocks down, I mean, you could stay here if you wanted, I just…I know you hate the idea, but I want you to be happy, to find something that you love, and I don't think you've got that yet" she sighs, "just try it?"_

_It's an old argument, one she doesn't really expect to win so when he says, "okay Abb, if I take a couple classes next quarter will that make you happy?" she's ecstatic, insisting on buying him notebooks and highlighters and he laughs and tells her he wants to finish his cereal first. _

_They talk for a half an hour or so until they're ready to go out. It's pretty nice out and there is a park with street vendors that sell the best cotton candy in the world a few blocks down. J.D.'s pulling on a sweater when she sees that he's gotten a new tattoo, "you do that just to drive Henry nuts" she says and he shakes his head, insisting it's just a happy byproduct before he follows her into her room while she tries to find a sweater. _

"_So, you're going?" he asks tapping on the suit case in the corner of her room._

"_Huh?" she asks, and turns, "Oh, I don't know, I mean I got the suit case out of storage and took the week off work, and even bought the plane ticket, but I don't know." She sighs and pulls on a black sweater, "I may be the world's worst best friend for saying this, but right now I'm leaning towards not going." She shakes her head a little, "I don't know, it's not for another month and a half – I have time to change my mind several times before then…who knows."_

"_I might not go either" he says it so casually that she's not sure she heard him right. Like he said he was thinking about skipping a television show and not his brother's wedding. _

"_You have to go," she tells him as they leave her apartment and start walking, "he's you're brother, and you are they only family each other's got, outside of Uncle Marty." She looks over at him and watches him shake his head a little. _

"_And you" he says and she bumps his shoulder with hers lightly. "I don't think he really even wants me there, he just has to say he does."_

_Abby rolls her eyes, "I think you should cut Henry some slack, he loves you. Look, I know you don't always get along but Henry's always tried to do what's best for you, and he's messed up before, but J.D., so have you." She sighs, "I think you'll regret it if you don't go" she says. _

_He rolls his eyes, "Okay, okay, I'll go, God you're on a roll today." she smiles in victory and pulls him into a store. _

_By the time they get back to her apartment he's carrying a backpack stuffed with notebooks and pencils and tons of other school supplies. Every time she picked something up to put in the cart he'd put it back and tell her that she did _not_ have to buy him these things. She'd smile and say, "I'm really excited for you, J.D." or something like that and pick it back up. _

_She goes back to her table and picks up the manila folder they'd left there earlier. "So, at both schools the new quarter starts a few weeks after Henry's wedding so you don't have to decide yet…"_

Abby's knees are against her chest as she watches a warped version of the story of what happened on Harper's Island unfold, via photos of the wedding party and reenactments, on the television in front of her. A childhood photograph of her and Henry, from when she was about six, pops up and she buries her eyes in Jimmy's shoulder.

He feels warm tears hit his neck and wraps his arms around her a little tighter. He feels around the couch a little for the remote control and when he finds it he hits the power button, turning off the television, then lets the remote fall back to the bed and runs his hand over Abby's back.

She pulls back a little, wiping her eyes furiously and looks at him, "I talked J.D. into going to the wedding." She sighs, "He didn't even want to go, I told him what a good guy Henry was and that he'd regret it if he missed his bother's wedding" she looks past Jimmy.

"None of this is your fault" he tells her and she rolls her eyes and stands up. This is the first time she's felt much of anything since everything happened. Like her system and her emotions shut down to protect themselves and now everything is coming back and she doesn't understand why her defense system is going into remission when she still needs it.

"All of it is my fault," she stands up and walks to the far side of the room, "Everything…I knew Henry my whole life and I didn't even -" Jimmy cuts her off.

"Don't do this Abby; you can't do this to yourself." Jimmy stands and walks closer to her, "I know that you know this isn't your fault, you can't -"

She cuts him off this time, "You don't know anything. Jimmy," she starts, and even as she's talking she knows what she's doing. She's doing now what she did seven years ago, shutting out everyone who means anything to her, only then it was a long list, and now it's just Jimmy, she hiccups a little before, "you haven't known me in a long time, Jimmy, if you ever even did, I mean it was high school and…" she trails off and looks at him for a long moment. "I'm covered in blood, it never touched me, but I'm drowning in it" She doesn't want to be doing this, doesn't want to shut him out like she did seven years ago, he doesn't deserve that, he didn't then and he really doesn't now. Even with that knowledge, she can't stop herself from walking from the living room to the bedroom and slamming the door that connects them, hard.

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**Authors Note 3:** Please review, I work very hard on this fic and would like to know if it is being enjoyed!


	6. Accidental

**Title:** She Remembers

**Author:** Katie

**Story Summary**: Abby can remember when things were different, and she's not sure that'll she ever be able to reconcile her past with her present. Post-finale fic with pre-series flashbacks. Please R/R.

**Spoilers:** Sigh

**Ratings:** PG (if you're old enough to watch Harper's Island, you're old enough to read this)

**Pairing:** All chapters include Abby/Jimmy romance.

**Authors Note:** Could probably be read as a series of one-shots as much as a continuous story. I don't know how much older Henry is than Abby, or how much older Abby is than JD, so I took artistic license.

**Authors Note 2:** This is my very first Harper's Island fiction, so please be kind. This did not turn out anything like I though it would, hope you like it anyway – I had fun writing it.

**Distribution:** Please! Just let me know.

**Feedback:** Please!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything…at all…

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**Chapter Six: Accidental **

Abby wakes up less than two hours later, in the center of the bed and with the confronter pulled around her shoulders. She looks around, and seeing that she's alone, she thinks that what she never wanted to or meant to do worked – she had finally scared Jimmy away and now he's off somewhere, planning to break her heart, or worse, just moving on – not caring one way or the other about her.

But, she didn't fall asleep on the bed; she fell asleep in the chair by the window. And when she fell asleep the television was on (even though it was horrible and fairly inaccurate she was watching stories on the _Tragedy of Harper's Island _all she could hear were ways she should have known what was going to happen) and now it was off. And she know that the door she had slammed a few hours before was still closed when she fell asleep, and now it was just slight cracked – she could see the light coming in from the living room, it was still only around 3:00 in the afternoon.

She pushes the blanket back slowly and stands, pauses in front of the mirror and pulls her hand through her hair a few times, she looks at her suite case by the door and glances at the cell phone – working again and recovered from her hotel room- on top of it. She would laugh at herself in any other situation. She was looking for any reason not to walk out of the bedroom and into the living room and see that Jimmy was gone. The worst part was that she had done this to herself.

She finally squares her shoulders and takes a deep breath; she pauses for a moment with her hand on the door then finally just pulls it, like a band aid she thinks cynically to herself. She all most sobs when she doesn't see anybody in the room, and she can't figure out why she's surprised, but she's more than just surprised, she devastated. She sighs heavily, trying to hold in tears as she leans back against the wall. She all most has a heart attack when she hears shuffling on the other side of the couch.

She walks slowly to the other side of the couch and sees Jimmy sitting on the floor, papers from the police station and hospital scattered around him. The television out here is on some random TV show and the volume is ridiculously low, she knows he was trying not to wake her. He hasn't noticed her yet and she feels tears running down her cheeks. She feels like the worst person alive – he's still there, staying quite so she can sleep after screaming at him for nothing and filling out paper work so she won't have to.

She must have made a noise or something because he looks up and sees her, the smile starting to form on his face is tentative when he starts to stand; she can tell he's trying to figure out if she's about to go off on him again and she walks over to him before he can stand. She moves so that her feet are on either side of his legs, then drops to her knees, straddling him, she wants to apologize but can't find words good enough. Her breath hitches when she feels his hands cup her face, his thumbs wiping tears away from her cheeks. "I didn't think you'd be awake for a while" he says quietly, "I didn't wake you up, did I?" he asks, still quiet and she lets out a laugh that sounds more like a sob.

"I'm sorry…I am so sorry" she closes her eyes tightly, trying to stop more tears from forming, "I don't know why I did that – I just…"she sighs, trying to explain something she doesn't really understand herself. "I don't want to push you away again, I…" she trails off again and smiles a little when he pulls her forehead to his lips gently.

"I'm not going anywhere, Abby." He promises her, his lips brushing her forehead with every word. She leans back a little so she can see him more clearly and he moves his hands in sequence to tuck her hair behind her ears, "Abby," he starts, stretching out her name in a way that makes her smile, one hand going to rest on her arm, the other resting lightly on her cheek, holding her eyes to his, "I love you, and I'm not going to walk away from this, from you."

He looks like he's trying to think of what to say to convince her that he won't leave her, even though she thinks maybe he should. He doesn't have to convince her though, if he stayed through her craziness earlier…well if she had been actively trying to push him away she's not sure she could have come up with better. She knows he won't just walk away now.

He's in the middle of saying something when her hands reach up to rest on either side of his face and he stutters a little until her lips crash onto his and he stops trying to speak all together. She feels one of his hands in her hair and the other on her back and she smiles into the kiss. She slowly lets her weight fall from her knees, so she's sitting in his lap then she lets her arms settle around Jimmy's neck.

When they finally pull apart it's partly because they're both out of breath and partly because a car backfiring out side is loud enough to be a distraction. He rests his forehead on hers. "I love you, too" she whispers and he smiles. She kisses him once before resting her forehead on his shoulder. After a long moment she moves off of him and sits down next to him angling herself so she can drape both of her legs over his and lean forward into his side.

"What are you doing out here, anyway?" she asks picking up one of the papers surrounding him.

He kisses her forehead before he answers, "The state police had this stuff sent over," he starts, and he doesn't want to tell her, but he knows it's information she needs, "It's, uh…it's information about whose funerals were where, and who hasn't been claimed, and that kind of stuff." He hears her sharp intake of breath, "You don't need to worry about this stuff, Abby, I got it" he tells her and she remembers…

_Abby is 18 years old, and she just started college a few months ago. She's in her room studying and she rolls her eyes when her dorm mate, Brenda, stumbles in drunk – she's already failing most of her classes, and it turns out she's just changing clothes before heading back out. _

_Abby's so lost in her book that when she hears a soft knock on her door she thinks she's imagined it. A few moments later she hears it again and swings her legs off her bed and walks over to the door, fully expecting to see Brenda on the other side, having lost her key…again. When she pulls on the door (hard because it sticks) and it opens, she sees Henry on the other side, and is almost excited before she notices his red rimed eyes and downcast look. "Henry, what…?" she starts before grabbing his hand and pulling him into the dorm before warping her arms around him. _

_When she pulls back he takes a deep breath, then looks up at her, "my dad is dead" he says simply and she leans in and hugs him again. Four hours later she's sitting next to Henry on a plane heading towards Tacoma. He falls asleep halfway through the flight and his head rests on her shoulder, she's glad he's asleep – she knew he could use the rest, and she's not really sure what she should say. _

_Booth is waiting for them at the airport, he hugs her awkwardly and they walk out to Malcolm's Jeep (Booth doesn't have a car, but Malcolm's in class right now). Booth drops them off at Henry's place but he can't stay, he has a class to get to. She and Henry walk into the house and Abby stops in the doorway and looks at the photograph of the Dunn family from several years ago. Henry's mother had died in a car crash about six years ago, she knows that J.D. hardly remembers her. _

_She turns the corner and sees 13-year-old J.D. sitting in an oversized green chair and walks over and hugs him. Uncle Marty walks down the hallway and upon seeing her, walks over and hugs her. Henry doesn't say anything, walks past all of them and into his room, the sound of his door slamming is loud in the quiet house. She hugs J.D. again before walking down to Henry's room. _

_She knocks once before opening the door, not waiting for a response. He's lying on his back on his bed, staring blankly at his ceiling; she walks over and lies down next to him. "I know that since my mother is dead, I'm supposed to know what to say here, but honestly, Henry, I have no idea." She sighs; "I'm so sorry" and wishes she could come up with something better. When his mother died, they were both so young that she wasn't expected to know what to say or do; now she feels like she should. _

_She feels Henry's fingers lace through hers and she tilts her head, so it's on his shoulder. This isn't so different from when her mother was killed less than six months ago and she remembers not speaking for all most a full day after that. They lay like that for a long time until a soft knock on the door disrupts the stillness of the room. Abby slowly sits up, "Yeah?" She asks after looking at Henry who didn't bother sitting up. _

_Abby gives Sully a small half smile when he walks into the room. He walks over and hugs her, kissing her temple lightly before handing Henry and bottle of water and tells him that Uncle Marty is trying to cook and, "you've gotta eat something, man"_

_Abby squeezes Henry's hand once before standing up, "I don't think Uncle Marty is a real strong chef, I'm going to go see if he needs some help" she half shrugs at Sully when she walks past him, and when she gets to the door she makes eye contact with Henry for a brief moment before mouthing _I'll be right back_. _

_Abby walks into the kitchen, she's pretty sure that she's never seen Uncle Marty out of party mode, and seeing him struggle with grilled cheese and curse under his breath when he burns one is all most as hard for her as the thought of Henry's fathers death. She walks up behind Uncle Marty and "I've got it" she says quietly and he nods backing away. _

_He goes to the other side of the counter and sits down next to J.D. who barley seems to know where he is. "Can I ask how…I mean... what happened?" she asks, stumbling over her words as she pulls bread out of a bag and spreads butter on one side of each slice. _

_Uncle Marty sighs a little and glances over at J.D. who hasn't even looked up, "they're saying that he mixed up some of his meds and took too much of one and just…" Uncle Marty trails off and Abby's sorry she asked. _

"_Sorry" Abby mumbles and shakes her head a little as she pulls a finished sandwich onto a plate and places it front of J.D.. She walks over to the fridge and pours a glass of milk and sets that in front of J.D. as well. He shakes his head and she repeats Sully's words to Henry, "You need to eat" and picks at his sandwich absently. _

_After a few moments she slides another sandwich on a plate and sets that one in front of Uncle Marty who takes it but lets it sit in front of him. It's only a few minutes later when the last one is done and she puts it on a plate and turns off the burner on the stove before taking the food into Henry's room. _

_He's still lying on his bed and she sets the plate on his stomach. Sully is sitting on top of the dresser in the corner and Abby sits on the bed. Henry spins the plate in slow circles without sitting up. Abby and Sully share a long look, neither knowing what to do._

_Four days later she's repacking the things she brought with her, not much just what she'd been able to grab before she got on the flight to Tacoma. Henry's in another room with Sully, Danny, and Booth and she's arguing with J.D. who doesn't want to live with Uncle Marty but it's not like he can move into Henry's fraternity house or her dorm so she's not sure what he thinks she can do about it. J.D., Henry, and Uncle Marty are all that's left of the Dunn family and she wonders how the hell that happened, how the family she practically grew up a part of shrunk so quickly and it makes her sad, makes her feel a little unsafe and she tries to shake that feeling as she takes a deep breath and throws the rest of her things in her bag._

_About an hour later she's at the Sea-Tac airport, standing next to gate B7 with Henry and J.D. wishing she could stay, but she's all ready missed all most a week of school and she knows she has to get back. She hugs J.D. first "I'm sorry, give Uncle Marty a chance, okay? And give me a call of you need anything. I love you, kid." She whispers in his ear. She hears his respond 'you too' and she pulls back and side steps over to Henry._

_She walks easily into Henry's arms, holding tightly to him. "I'm really sorry, Henry." She whispers and feels him shake his head a little, "If you need anything…" she trails off because the offer feels all most trivial, and Henry knows she'll always be there anyway – just like she knows Henry will always be around for her. She sighs when she hears an automated voice announcing that her flight will be departing soon. "Love" she whispers and when he responds "love' with a slight laugh she pulls back. _

_She hugs J.D. once, quickly, before doing the same to Henry. "Okay," she takes a deep breath; "I'll call when I land" she says and waves once before walking to her plane. During take off she watches the airport shrink behind her and closes her eyes tightly. _

Abby picks up one of the pieces of paper, it's a list of all the people whose bodies have been claimed and where and when there funerals will take place. All the funerals that were to take place off of Harper's Island occurred in the week between the FBI clearing the island and the Coast Guard picking her and Jimmy up. She skims it, not ready to really read it; Nicole Bolton – Harper's Island, Seattle. Shane Pierce – Harper's Island, Seattle. She knows she should be at their funerals but she's not so sure she can go back there. She knows Jimmy will want to be at Shane's funeral, and everything he owns is on that island, but she's not sure that she could know that he was on the island and be okay with it. She knows she has to bring it up, the paper she is holding says that their funerals are the next day, a mass service for the residents of Harper's Island who died there, but every time she opens her mouth, words about returning to the island refuse to come out. She releases her hold on the paper instead and it half floats down to Jimmy's lap. She sighs and picks up another paper.

When she realizes what she's picked up, she pulls in a sharp breath and grabs a handful of Jimmy's shirt with her free hand. Henry Dunn, James Dunn, Martin Dunn, Charles Mills, Kelly Seaver; it's the list of bodies that have yet to be claimed. What the hell is she gong to do, she has no idea if they will let her have her father's body moved, or where he would want to be buried, and what about J.D. or Uncle Marty or even Kelly – she couldn't just let them be forgotten. And is she supposed to claim Henry's body? She's starting to panic when she feels Jimmy's hand run slow circles over her back.

"If you want your dad buried on Harper's they can do that, but if you'd rather he be buried somewhere else, or cremated we just have to call," he points absently at the phone number at the top of the paper, "they pulled his will, it doesn't specify anything, and they're going to wait until you're back in LA to set up a meeting to go over everything else." Jimmy kisses the top of her head lightly. "Normally they don't release bodies to anyone buy family but there is some special circumstances clause, so they're supposed to get back to me about Kelly and J.D. and Marty," he takes a deep breath, "I didn't know what you'd want to do about Henry, but there is time to think about it." He says the last part quickly but it helps that she knows it true, they wait all most two full weeks before giving unclaimed bodies a government funeral (a pine box and a cross with your name on it – not so different from what she thought was Wakefield's grave).

She's looking at him with an expression he can't quite make out, "You were asleep…" he feels the need to explain, "I just called some people…" he trails off again and she leans up and kisses him. He smiles when they pull apart.

She kind of can't believe that she yelled and went crazy, and then he did all of this for her. She smiles a little before catching sight of the papers with the planned funerals on the island again, "Jimmy," she starts, "are you going back to the island, for your things, or for Shane and Nikki's funerals?" She just asks because she can't think of a way to sugar coat a question like that.

She watches Jimmy close his eyes and take a deep breath; it hits her then, that him doing all these things was part of how he was coping. He was taking care of her, and that let allowed him not to focus on what he lost. "I don't know, Abby" he answers and shrugs a little. "What do you think?"

She takes a deep breath, "Don't know." She looks around the room for a moment, "I'm not sure I can go back there" she answers honestly before swallowing, "but I feel like I should at least try to go, Nikki was my like my best friend in high school and Shane…" she trails off, Shane was practically family to Jimmy.

Jimmy nods a little, "Lets sleep on it tonight, and if we want to go we'll catch the morning taxi?" he says it like a question and she nods. She grabs all the papers and puts them on the sofa they are leaning on. She turns the volume up on the television, it's some stupid, inane reality show but it couldn't be father from the horrors of what happened to them so she moves closer to Jimmy and feels his arms tighten around her and lets herself pretend to feel like a normal girl, watching television with her boyfriend.

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**Authors Note 3:** So, this really came from something that Chris Gorham said on his twitter account (Chris_Gorham) that he thought that Henry's (adoptive) mothers death was accidental but that maybe Henry played a part in his (adoptive) fathers death. So that got me thinking and so the flash back part of this chapter was what came from that.

**Authors Note 4:** PLEASE review!!!


	7. Last Looks

**Title:** She Remembers

**Author:** Katie

**Story Summary**: Abby can remember when things were different, and she's not sure that'll she ever be able to reconcile her past with her present. Post-finale fic with pre-series flashbacks. Please R/R.

**Spoilers:** Sigh

**Ratings:** PG (if you're old enough to watch Harper's Island, you're old enough to read this)

**Pairing:** All chapters include Abby/Jimmy romance.

**Authors Note:** Could probably be read as a series of one-shots as much as a continuous story. I don't know how much older Henry is than Abby, or how much older Abby is than JD, so I took artistic license.

**Authors Note 2:** This is my very first Harper's Island fiction, so please be kind. This did not turn out anything like I though it would, hope you like it anyway – I had fun writing it.

**Distribution:** Please! Just let me know.

**Feedback:** Please!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything…at all…

------------------------------------------

**Chapter Seven: Last Looks**

Abby's standing on the upper deck of a water taxi about ten minutes away from Harper's Island. She's holding the railing tightly, her knuckles are starting to shade white, and leaning back into Jimmy's hand on her back.

The night before, she realized that she knew, with an absolute kind of clarity, that her father would want to be buried with her mother. So, she called Doctor Campbell and asked if her father could "please be included in tomorrow's services" He'd said it was fine but when he asked if she'd be there she still hadn't decided, and told him as much.

When she asked if he had moved back, Dr. Campbell told her that had only returned to the island to help prepare the bodies of people who would be buried there, after all he had known Shane and Nikki their whole lives, and he knew her father well, but he was considering a move back. "This island has moved past tragedy before, Abigail, we can do it again." He'd told her and in a way she'd admired him, but she knew that he left not long after Mr. Wellington died and did not witness the worst of things.

When she woke up the next morning, her head on Jimmy's chest, his arms around her, she'd felt like she had to go back. She missed so much when she left seven years ago, missed too much with her father, she wasn't sure that she could forgive herself for missing his funeral as well.

"Five minutes" the boat's caption yells out, and Abby feels like she can't breath.

"We do not have to do this" Jimmy's voice if soft next to her ear, but firm, "you don't have to prove anything, Abby." He sighs, "We can just stay right here until the taxi turns around to go back to Seattle. We don't even have to get off the boat." She feels herself nod but can't make herself speak as the taxi pulls into the rebuilt dock. She can see the outline of the Candlewick in the distance, and she's feeling like she did on the Wellington's boat over a week ago only about a million times worse. The pain of what happened is too fresh and she hates herself for it, but for a brief moment she wishes Henry was there to tell her things would be okay –she'd heard those words from him all most every time something in her life changed, and he'd always helped make them true before. She leans into Jimmy instead.

She taps absently against the railing of the boat, mimicking her actions from before, in any other situation, Jimmy would think it was cute, he goes to speak but she turns quickly, walking down the stairs and off the boat. She stops as soon as she is on the dock, though - like she's not sure if she's actually going to do this or not. Jimmy wraps an arm around her and kisses her temple. She nods a little and starts to walk.

Not far from the cemetery there is a large tent set up, they haven't rebuilt the church yet so there are rows of chairs under the tent and there are several coffins with photographs sitting on top of their closed lids in the front. There are several people all ready seated, and she wonders how many of them are actually going to stay here –to continue to live on the island, and how they can see anything but blood and betrayal when they look around. She sees Dr. Campbell talking to a reverend she doesn't recognize and her eyes flicker to Reverend Fein's photograph on top of a mahogany coffin.

She wraps her arm around Jimmy tightly and in an instant she's not even sure she can stand. She feels both of his arms around her and buries her face in his chest. She feels his hand trace invisible patterns on her back over the simple black dress she's found at a small store down the street from the hotel before they got on the water taxi this morning. She takes a deep breath before she pulls back and he gently holds her face in his hands, forcing her eyes to meet his. She nods slightly and even though she can tell he's not so sure about this, he allows her to lead him to seats in the very back. They sit down and she remembers…

_Abby's 18 years old and she waited at her house with Henry and Jimmy for as long as she felt like she could before finally figuring that her dad forgot he said he'd meet her there and left. When the three of them reached the church, her hand in Jimmy's and Henry's arm around her shoulders she was both angry and relieved to see her father standing by his seat in the front row. _

_She's standing in the entrance of the church, her eyes alternating between her mother's coffin and her father. She stays there, frozen in her spot, until Maggie Krell accidentally bumps into her, and then upon seeing who it is, wraps her arms around Abby. She stands back from Abby a step then looks at the boys on either side of Abby, "You take good care of her." She says before walking away to take a seat, none of them know if she was talking to Jimmy or Henry. _

_Henry sees his family sitting in the second row, waving him over. J.D. runs over and hugs Abby quickly before going back to his parents and Henry hugs Abby tightly whispering in her ear that "I've gotta go sit with my family, are you going to be okay?" she nods without speaking and Henry shoots Jimmy a look that clearly says 'you'd better take care of her' before turning to take a seat directly behind the one saved for Abby. _

_Jimmy moves his arm around Abby's shoulder and lets her stand there until she's ready to move. Jimmy sees his parents out of the corner of his eye and points to the front of the building, signaling that he was going to walk Abby to the front. Jimmy kisses her temple lightly before sliding his hand to the small of his girlfriend's back. He leads her to the place reserved for her at the front of the church, she stands next to her father without acknowledging him, but she hadn't been acknowledging much of anything all day so it doesn't surprise Jimmy. She was glancing from the photograph of her mother, to the coffin, to her seat randomly; like she wasn't sure she was supposed to do. _

_Jimmy tucks a lock of her hair behind her ear and presses his lips to her forehead. When he takes a step back, he's not sure what to do so he hesitates a moment then gestures idly at his parents sitting a few rows back and turns to start to walk away. _

_Jimmy hasn't even taken a step when he feels Abby's fingers around his wrist. He's shocked, mostly because Abby has hardly acknowledged anything or anyone all day. He turns around quickly and Abby half shrugs and looks at her shoulder when she mumbles out "stay?" in a quiet voice that sounds nothing like her own. _

_He kisses her forehead, "course" he whispers his lips brushing her forehead. Jimmy doesn't miss the look that Charlie gives him and he spends a few minutes trying to figure out if he imagined the look that Henry gave him from one row back. Reverend Fein walks up to the podium and everyone sits down, Abby between her father who has barley even looked up and Jimmy who hears Abby sharp intake of breath and reaches over to take her hand. Reverend Fein starts to speak and Abby holds Jimmy's hand so tight that it's almost painful. He says nothing and when she drops her head onto his shoulder he kisses the top of her head lightly. _

_Two weeks later she's living in Los Angeles. It happened so quickly – her father deciding that she should leave and her catching a water taxi late the next evening. She was so angry at everything and everyone that she hadn't even told anyone, Jimmy included, that she was leaving; she regretted that ever since. Once, a week and two days, after she left the island she's sat on the bed in the guest room of her grandmother's house and dialed Jimmy's number from heart – he said 'hello' to no response three times before he hung up. Somehow, even in the moment, she was sure that she would regret that forever. _

Abby holds Jimmy's hand tightly as the new reverend, Hayden he'd sad his name was, finishes his speeches. Jimmy winds his free hand around her shoulders and her head falls back against his arm for a moment until most people move to the nearest grave and they start lowering coffins into the ground one by one.

Abby doesn't move, and Jimmy sits with her until long after they've lowered all the coffins and there are only a few people left. She's looking straight ahead when she speaks, "Do you think I could meet you at your place?" she asks quietly.

Jimmy looks over at her with surprise; he lightly lays his hand on her cheek, gently forcing her to look at him so he could look her in the eye, "Are you sure, Abby?"

She half smiles at his obvious concern, she places her hand lightly on his wrist, "I'm sure…I just need a few minutes, I'll meet you there" she kisses him lightly and he nods once before standing and walking in the direction of his house.

She stands slowly and walks to the headstone reading 'Charles Mills'. She paces along the open grave a few times, looking down at the coffin inside. She finally stops, bouncing her weight from one foot to the other before she sighs and, "I think…" she starts but trails off. She swallows hard, screws her eyes shut for a moment then takes a deep breath before starting again, "I think that me and Jimmy might have that life together" she says picking idly at her dress, "I'm really sorry, dad." She whispers.

She spends about ten minutes at her father's grave, alternately thanking him, apologizing, and telling him things she'd like for him to know before going by all the other graves then finally, walking in the direction of Jimmy's house.

She stops in her tracks when she sees the Cannery, it occurs to her that Jimmy told her once that he didn't find much comfort in grave sights, didn't feel any closer to the people he'd lost just because he was closer to their bodies. She knew that Jimmy and Shane spent a lot of time at the Cannery after work and on days off. She glances around, there is no evidence of anyone being here but for some reason she's pretty sure that Jimmy is in the Cannery.

The door is blocked off with police tape; they've cleaned out the Cannery but have not re-opened it. She ducks under the police tape and sees Jimmy sitting at the bar twirling a beer and for a moment she's just glad that she still knows him well enough to know he'd be here. She can tell he hasn't noticed her presence yet so she stands by the door and just watches him for a moment.

She finally walks up behind him and places a hand on his shoulder; he jumps a little and spins to face her. "Hey" she whispers and moves up to the bar. He looks like he's about to apologize and she knows he thinks she was looking at his house and didn't find him, she presses her lips to his before he gets the chance. "I was just on my way to your place, and I thought maybe you'd be here" she says and he nods a little.

She can't help but glance over at the spot where they'd found Shane strung up and she moves to stand closer to Jimmy who's been looking straight ahead, he wraps an arm around her shoulders without even looking over. He takes a last drink of his beer, looks around, and then stands, "Come on" he mumbles holding out his hand.

There're at his place not too long after. She can remember sneaking into his room here when she was sixteen and smiles a little as she sits down on his bed. He pulls a suit case and a duffle bag out of his closet and sets them on his bed. Other than his boat he doesn't have a lot of stuff and his boat had been blown up so he doesn't have to worry about that.

He's grabbing clothes and putting them in his suite case and Abby stands and starts walking around the house. She pulls a photograph of Jimmy and Shane on the Sea Jay off the wall and carries it with her. She starts walking around other rooms and while you can still see that this was once his parent's house, touches of Jimmy are everywhere, there are even boats on the wall paper in the bathroom, and all the sudden she feels like she's forcing him to leave because she can't remember ever even asking him.

There is a photo of Jimmy and his parents on the wall of the kitchen and she pulls that down, carrying it with her while she walks into the living room and smiles at the boat in a bottle on the mantel. When she was here before she didn't really look around and now that she is the fact that she's in Jimmy's house is all too obvious.

She walks back into Jimmy's room and puts the things she'd collected in the duffle bag. "Do you want to leave the island?" she asks suddenly and Jimmy spins around from his closet to face her so fast it's all most comical.

"What?" he asks.

"I mean, did you want to move back here?" she sighs and gestures around, "You have this whole life and this house is so clearly yours and I don't even know if you actually want to move away…let alone to Los Angeles."

He walks over to her, placing his hands on her arms, "I want to be with you, Abby." He knows she could never stay here and he sighs lightly, "And, no, after all that's happened, I don't want to be here…and I want to be in Los Angeles if that's where you are, if you want me there."

She nods, tears welling up in her eyes, "I want you there" she says and he kisses her softly.

He takes a step back and runs a hand through his hair before he pulls a folded photograph out of his back pocket, "Found this in my closet" he says before unfolding it and handing it to her. It's a photo of them, about 17 years old, sitting on top of a tool shed on the docks that they used to sit on all the time.

On the way back to the re-built dock they stop by the Cemetery for last good-byes. They make the next to last water taxi of the evening (because there was no way they were staying on the island overnight) and they'll get back to their hotel in Seattle around 9:00pm. Abby knows, in her blood and in her bones, as she watches the island shrink behind her that she'll never go back.

When they're back in their room at the hotel, Jimmy sets his suite case and duffle bag next to Abby's suit case and they fall asleep easily that night, Jimmy lying on his back and Abby's head on his chest.

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Please review!


	8. It’s Time

**Title:** She Remembers

**Author:** Katie

**Story Summary**: Abby can remember when things were different, and she's not sure that'll she ever be able to reconcile her past with her present. Post-finale fic with pre-series flashbacks. Please R/R.

**Spoilers:** Sigh

**Ratings:** PG (if you're old enough to watch Harper's Island, you're old enough to read this)

**Pairing:** All chapters include Abby/Jimmy romance.

**Authors Note:** Could probably be read as a series of one-shots as much as a continuous story. I don't know how much older Henry is than Abby, or how much older Abby is than JD, so I took artistic license.

**Authors Note 2:** This is my very first Harper's Island fiction, so please be kind. This did not turn out anything like I though it would, hope you like it anyway – I had fun writing it.

**Distribution:** Please! Just let me know.

**Feedback:** Please!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything…at all…

------------------------------------------

**Chapter Eight: It's Time**

Abby's sitting in the passenger side of the rental car, Jimmy's driving, and she's wondering for the hundredth time if this is a good idea. The night before she'd called Shea, who'd invited them for lunch at her place in Tacoma, they were all most there – they'd stopped at the cemetery where Trish was buried a few minutes ago and left flowers. Abby was now alternating between playing with her hair and fiddling with the radio dial, trying to find something that she liked. She was never extremely close to Shea who had hung out with her, Henry, and Trish very occasionally when they were young and she had nothing else to do or her parents made her, she was all most ten years older than them after all. Before going back to Harper's Island she only ever met Madison a few times when she'd flown in to Tacoma to visit Henry or J.D.. While she knows that she can't blame Madison, a little girl who was scared for her mother's life, she can't help but wish Madison hadn't lied about who had her down in the tunnels – then maybe she wouldn't have had to spend her father's last hours angry and suspecting him.

After Abby has changed the radio station three times, played with the air conditioning dials, and adjusted the clock display all within about a minute Jimmy reaches over and grabs her hand lightly, "Why are you so nervous?" he asks her.

"I'm not…" she starts but trail off when she sees him roll his eyes – she knows that he noticed that she changed her clothes three times before they left the hotel. She takes a deep breath, "My conversation with Shea was pretty short, I don't know if she asked us over because she felt like she had to, and I don't know if she blames me, and…" she's speaking so quickly that her words are starting to overlap and she trails off when Jimmy squeezes her hand softly.

"No one blames you." He tells her, glancing over at her.

"Why not…I do" she mumbles. Jimmy starts to say her name but she cuts him off, "Can we not…please" he sighs and she can tell that he wants to argue but he nods anyway. Her mind starts to wander to her short conversation with Shea the evening before. Shea told her that the FBI had informed her that Henry was the accomplice, but not much else, and Shea apologized for thinking that it might have been Jimmy, which Abby shrugged off.

Abby feels the car stop and hears the engine cut out and looks around a little, realizing abruptly that they are at Shea Allen's house. She nods a little to herself before she steps out of the car and walks around to Jimmy and leans into him for a brief moment before taking a step back and looking at Shea's impressive house. "okay" she mumbles under her breath, "okay" then takes Jimmy's waiting hand. They walk up the patch stone walkway and ring the door bell.

They can see Madison walking to the door through the glass oval in the center of the large wood door. Madison opens the door and calls out "Mom, they're here" before hugging Abby and Jimmy in turn.

Shea's looking a lot more like herself than the last time they saw each other and her heels click on the hardwood floor with each steep as she walks over to greet them. Abby flexes her toes inside her sneakers and for a fleeting moment wishes that her mother had been around to teach her about dressing up and being girly because somehow they hadn't gotten to that by the time Abby was 18 and her mother was dead.

Shea hugs Abby then Jimmy, much like her daughter had moments before, then insists on taking their jackets and leading them into the living room. They talk idly about things that don't really matter, like traffic on their drive over and the hotel they're staying at, until lunch is ready and they're walking into the dinning room to sit down and Abby sees a photograph of Trish sitting on an end table that can't be more than a few months old. She picks it up without thinking about it and she catches Shea's eye when she looks up. She thinks that, in that moment she can see; Shea doesn't blame her, but Shea doesn't not blame her either. But Shea lost just as much as she did and she understands wanting someone to blame, and shit, she blames herself – why shouldn't Shea blame her?

They talk at lunch, about the media surrounding them and the case since their return, about Shea's house, about the funerals that she and Jimmy were unable to attend as they were still on the island, about the funerals that happened on the island only a day ago, about her and Jimmy going to Los Angeles, but with the exception of a few brief mentions of Trish they keep their conversation mostly general and off the topic of the people they lost.

Until, that is, Madison sets her fork on the table and says, very calmly, "Was Henry born bad like John Wakefield?"

"Madison" Shea says sharply, setting her glass on the table with enough force for it to be heard and a little water to slosh over the top and land on the white table cloth, there is warning clear in the tone of her voice and way she looks over at her daughter. Madison doesn't even look phased, just picks her fork back up and resumes eating.

The rest of the meal is pretty quiet, and they're back at the front door not long after. Abby and Jimmy are shrugging on their jackets and they each hug Madison and Shea before leaving. Jimmy wraps his arms around Abby's shoulders as they walk back to the rental car.

Abby's sitting in the car when her eye catches a storage shed in the back yard and she remembers…

_Abby is 16 years old and her parents are at an Inn on the mainland for the weekend. It's that weird time in-between the end of the summer season and when school actually starts again. _

_She'll be going into her junior year and she's just finished her summer reading assignments – two days after school let out in June she'd seen Shane throw his summer assignment packet from the dock into the water. Around 11:30 that night she goes upstairs to her room to go to bed, and she can all most hear Shane's voice in her head calling her lame. She thinks maybe she needs to hangout with Jimmy at the marina less if she's hearing Shane in her head. _

_At midnight a knock on her window wakes her up. She thinks maybe she imagined it, or it was the wind knocking a tree branch into her window, so she rolls over and pulls the sheet over head and tries to go back to sleep. A minute later she hears it again and knows it's not her imagination. "What, Henry?" she asks, her voice muffled by her pillow. When she and Henry were kids they used to watch a television series about two best friends who always climbed in and out of each other's windows (there were other aspects to the series, Abby was sure, but those were soon forgotten) and they had taken to the idea. _

_She's sitting up, reaching for the window curtain when she remembers that the Henry and the other summer kids left six days ago. She hears the knock again, then nothing, then the rustling of someone climbing back down the tree they'd have to climb up to get to her window, and leaving. She waits a moment before pulling her curtain back to see if anyone is there. Taped to the outside of her window is a folded piece of paper, she opens her window and grabs the paper before closing the window and pulling the curtain back to it's rightful place. She unfolds the paper and on it is one word: _Marina.

_She hesitates for about half a second before changing from pajama pants into jeans and brushing her hair into a pony tail. She grabs her keys and walks the short distance to the Marina wondering what the hell is going on. If she lived anywhere else in the world she might be nervous about walking in a slightly wooded area in the middle of the night, but she's lived on Harper's Island her whole life and in her 16 years of existence nothing truly bad had ever happened. _

_She gets to the marina and she's looking around a solid couple of minutes before she realizes that someone is sitting on top of the tool shed. She takes a few steps forward and the light from the marina finally hits his face; "Jimmy?" she asks and he doesn't say anything, just smiles. _

_After a moments Jimmy starches at the back of his neck and tilts his head a little, "Come up here"_

_She walks over and climbs on top of the panic table pulled to sit against the shed then hesitates, "I don't wanna fall" she feels like a little kid even as she says it._

_Jimmy doesn't make fun of her, just reaches out his hand and says, "I won't let you fall, I promise" and she smiles, taking his hand and letting him help her the rest of the way on to the roof of the tool shed. _

_She sits down next to Jimmy and sees that he's covered the roof with a comforter and there's a folded blanket in the corner with a basket on top of it. The opposite side of the roof has pillows haphazardly thrown into a pile and she finally shifts her eyes to Jimmy who looks a little nervous, "What is this?"_

"_Do you remember that career aptitude test at the end of last year?" He asks and she nods. They'd been forced to take that stupid aptitude test since junior year was when you started applying for college and thinking about what you wanted to do for the rest of your life and whatever. She's been so angry at her results she'd spent the whole next week talking about it and when Jimmy asked her what she did want to do she flushed a dark red and said she had it down to two options: astrologist (because she was currently in a stars and planets phase) or journalist (because she had always loved to write). She'd felt so stupid and so childish when she said it that she made him promise not to repeat it. "Well," he continues "In a couple of hours you're supposed to be able to Mercury from here, and I figured you could either study it or write about -"_

_She cuts him off with her lips on his. She is absolutely beaming at him when they pull apart; "This is amazing, thank you Jimmy" she says and smiles at his obvious look of relief. It's all still a little new to her – someone caring about her this much, putting this amount of effort into making her happy. It's never not amazing. _

_Half an hour later they're both lying down on their backs, looking up at the stars. Jimmy's head is on a pillow, and Abby's head is on his out stretched arm right where is meets his shoulder. One of her hands is holding his at the end of the arm she's lying on, her other hand is resting on his stomach where his free hand plays over her fingers idly. _

_He's trying to show her the constellations but she's never been able to see them. He tells her that he could only see them after he knew their stories so he gently picks up the hand resting on his stomach and point, with her fingers, to Delphinus and whispers the story behind it in her ear, "Delphinus the dolphin convinced Amphritrite to marry Poseidon, and Poseidon was so grateful that he put Delphinus in the stars."_

_Abby turns her head slightly so she can look at him and when she does her lips line up nicely with his. She kisses him before looking back up at the sky, "Is that it?" she asks pointing, excitement evident in her voice. _

"_Yeah" Jimmy whispers and kisses her temple softly. Abby has, never in her life, been able to pick out a constellation –she'd only a few times been able to even find the North Star, and she smiles broadly. _

_Not long later she can just barley make out a star that looks different than the others, it takes a few minutes but as it closer and becomes more distinct she realizes that it's not a star at all; "Jimmy…that's it…that's Mercury" she says pulling lightly on his hand and pointing. She feels him nod and smiles. After a long moment, "It's pretty…you don't think?"_

"_Beautiful" he mumbles still looking at her._

_They fall asleep there and wake up in time to see the sunrise, the light bouncing off the water and waking them. Jimmy walks her home that morning and just as she's about to walk into her house he catches her hand and pulls her back to him, "I love you, Abby" he says quietly it's the first time anyone she's not related to has said that to her and butterflies fill her stomach when she leans up on her tip toes to kiss him. _

"_I love you, too" she smiles when she says it. _

_After that night, that tool shed became a common meeting place for them, they'd sit up there sometimes for hours, and whenever Shane made fun of them they'd throw something at him. _

They return their rental car and walk the short distance back to the hotel; they're walking past the front desk to the elevator when "Excuse me, Mr. Mance" stops Jimmy. He's been a little reluctant to answer to his name when it's been anyone but Abby since the media figured it out but he hasn't seen any media at all in the hotel so he turns toward the desk. "A member of the FBI dropped this off for you" he's holding up an envelope which Jimmy takes with a thank you.

He opens the envelope when they're back in their hotel room and it's their plane tickets. "Flights tomorrow…that okay?" he asks Abby who shrugs a little.

"Guess it's time." She says and nods once.

-------------------------------

Author's Note 3: Been awhile since my last update, sorry about that. I'm back in school now (full time student with one part time job and a full time job) so time to write is a little harder to come by. I can't decide how much farther I want to take this so if you have a request not would be a good time to throw it in.

And as always, Please review!


	9. Harder Than You Know

**Title:** She Remembers

**Author:** Katie

**Story Summary**: Abby can remember when things were different, and she's not sure that'll she ever be able to reconcile her past with her present. Post-finale fic with pre-series flashbacks. Please R/R.

**Spoilers:** Sigh

**Ratings:** PG (if you're old enough to watch Harper's Island, you're old enough to read this)

**Pairing:** All chapters include Abby/Jimmy romance.

**Authors Note:** Could probably be read as a series of one-shots as much as a continuous story. I don't know how much older Henry is than Abby, or how much older Abby is than JD, so I took artistic license.

**Authors Note 2:** This is my very first Harper's Island fiction, so please be kind. This did not turn out anything like I though it would, hope you like it anyway – I had fun writing it.

**Distribution:** Please! Just let me know.

**Feedback:** Please!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything…at all…

------------------------------------------

**Chapter Nine: Harder Than You Know**

Abby was walking through the hotel room, making sure that nothing had been left of forgotten while they were packing. When she was satisfied that none of their belongings would be left behind she walked over to the bed, closed the suite case that sat on top of the bed and zipped it shut.

She looks over at Jimmy; he's leaning on the wall next to the door, his suit case sitting next to him, and suppressing an eye roll at her five minute search of the hotel room. She smiles a little nervously then pulls her bag off the bed and places it on the floor, pulling the handle so she can roll it behind her.

They check out of the hotel quickly and catch a taxi to the air port. They're in line to go through security when she remembers…

"_Yeah right, Abb…" eighteen year old J.D. says pushing twenty-three year old Abby lightly. They are at LAX airport, in the security line. _

_She laughs a little and punches his arm lightly, "I'm so tired" she sighs dramatically and he loops a casual arm around her shoulders. She leans against him lightly, it's early (about 6am) but they knew better than to chance it at LAX, the standard two hours early rule was even a little risky here. _

_The next day was Uncle Marty's birthday, and she had convinced J.D. to go with her. It would be the first real family event that J.D. would attend since his release from the psychiatric ward of the hospital. She wasn't yet sure how it would go, but she knew she'd bail with him if it got bad. _

_They walk through the metal detectors without incident, and go to pick up their carry on back packs when an uniformed officer places a heavy hand on J.D.'s shoulder and directs him to a huge box shaped room in the center of the security line, made of glass. They make Abby wait out side of the room but she can hear him say something about feeling like an exhibit at the zoo. _

_They hand search J.D. and all his belongs all while explaining that they do this randomly and are sorry for the inconvenience. When the officer's eye catches on J.D.'s new tattoo he looks over at her and mouths the word 'randomly'. They both laugh. _

They find their gate easily enough and sit down at one of the benches that line the windows. They still have half an hour or so until the plane boards, but Abby's content to watch planes take off and land (on the island they were far enough out that planes passing over head was sort of novel and, when they were kids they'd act ship wrecked and wave their arms around like they needed rescuing) and Jimmy was content to watch her.

When they find their seats on the plane Abby moves to the window seat and shoves her carry on under the seat in front of her before letting her forehead rest on the window and as the ground starts to move under them, she remembers…

_She's fifteen years old and her parents are taking her to Los Angeles for spring break. They're going to see UCLA (she'd seen a brochure a few years ago and really liked the school) and to see her grandmother. _

_They get to the air port really early (her mother is all about punctuality) so while her father sits by a window and pulls a news paper out, her mother goes to browse some of the small shops and she watches the planes come and go, fingering the change in her pocket. _

_She stands there for a good five minutes before rolling her eyes at her self and walking a few feet away to a pay phone. She drops a quarter in the slot and dials the Dunn family phone number by heart. Henry answers on the third ring and he only has half of the 'hello' out before she's talking._

"_I think I might be afraid to fly" she blurts and when he starts laughing, she can't help but join in, "don't laugh at me" she mumbles but its undercut by the fact that she can't stop laughing. _

"_Okay…" he takes a deep breath to stop his laughter, "Okay…why so you think you're afraid to fly?"_

"_That would just be so far to fall from…"_

_By the time she gets on the plane, she's not scared at all. _

The flight and subsequent taxi ride are uneventful. Abby leads Jimmy to her door and freezes. She stands there, staring at the 3F plastered to her door for a long moment, until she feels Jimmy's hand running soothing circles on her back. "Okay…" she mutters under her breath, taking a deep breath, "okay" she says it again, firmer this time, before sliding the key in the lock and pushing her door open.

Walking in she puts her suite case next to her kitchen table and motions for Jimmy to do the same. The book bag full of school supplies and a manila folder holding community college information still sits in the corner and in her effort not to look at it her eye catches a framed newspaper article hanging over her television and she remembers…

_It's her first solo by-line. It's a nothing article about some controversial books at the local library, but under the title it says 'written by: Abigail Mills' and she couldn't be more excited. She'd shared plenty of by-lines but never had one of her own, and now her editor says this is "Just the beginning, Abby."_

_Two days after the article is published she receives a framed copy in the mail from Henry. Even though Henry lives all the way in Tacoma and could care less what happen in Los Angeles he subscribes to the paper she writes for (and pays quite a bit extra for the small paper to be sent to his home in Tacoma every Sunday). She calls him as she's trying decide where to hang it. _

She shifts her eyes again, trying so hard not to break down and cry. She sees her cat sitting in a chair across from her bed, and notices flowers on the small table. She picks up the card; it's from her boss, telling her to take all the time she needs and that he's sorry and glad she's okay. She nods a little to herself and picks up a folded piece of notebook paper next to the vase. Her neighbor across the hall; she's been feeding the cat and put the flowers inside when they were delivered. Abby re-folds the paper and puts it down.

Jimmy stands next to the kitchen table and watches Abby move around her apartment. He looks around for a moment, eager to see what she's done with a place that's all her, but he only glances around a second before his eyes start to track her movement carefully. He's not sure what to do. When Abby pulls a photo of her, J.D., and Henry off the wall and starts to cry he can't hold his feet to the floor anymore.

He goes to her, holds her in his arms and leads her to the bed so she can sit. She lays down, her head in his lap (the photos still tightly in her hand) and it's clear to him that this is going to much _much_ harder than he anticipated.

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**Author's Note 3:** So, this chapter is obviously formatted a little different with several mini-flashbacks (do you like that, or should I stick with one long one?). This chapter was a little harder to write because it was all transition, so it's shorter and not my favorite but hopefully now I can get back into the story.

**Author's Note 4: **I do want to thank all the reviewers (if you have an account I try to thank everyone personally). To all my anonymous reviewers: You rock and I'm sorry I can't thank you individually. Also,**if you are an anonymous reviewer and you have questions/comments you'd like me to address please include an email address at which I can do so**(Jessica you made some good points/asked some good questions, unfortunately without a way to contact you I can't address any of them – though I would love to).

Okay new chapter will be out as soon as possible (though I am still busy and it may be awhile).

**As always…****  
PLEASE REVIEW **!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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